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Rating: 4 out of 5
The beautiful and fabulous world of Harley Quinn has been put on full display in Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (after the name change because NO ONE knew it was a Harley Quinn movie). A quick history lesson. Harley Quinn first appeared in the critically acclaimed and one of the best cartoon series, Batman: The Animated Series in the episode “Joker’s Favor.” While supposedly only having a small role in the cartoon series, the wide smile, puddin lovin, jester costume-wearing villain became a regular and soon became known as the Joker’s girlfriend.
After the oh so awful and confusing Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. decided to focus more on the star of the whole movie and the person that deserved her very own film, Margot Robbie and her insane, delightful, and of so adorable character Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is a crazy, wild ride just like its main character.
Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is told through the mind and eyes of Harley Quinn (Robbie). Harley seems to know everything that is happening all at once. The film starts off with a highly entertaining animated background story told by Harley. We learn that as a child, her deadbeat dad tried to get rid of her so many times that he finally dumped her at a Catholic Girls School. While at the school, Harley was a “demon” child, but through female empowerment, she graduated and earned her Ph.D. while becoming a psychologist. YOU GO, GIRL!!! Harley’s life turns to the wild side when working as a psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum, she meets and falls in love with the madman, The Joker, where she helps him escape the prison. After the time of her life, the Joker breaks up with Harley. Despite trying to put on a strong face, Harley doesn’t take the breakup quite well as she drinks, parties and spend most of her time with her hyena named Bruce. With no longer being the Joker’s girl, Harley loses all her protection and soon learns that half of Gotham wants her killed. One of the people is Roman Sionis (McGregor), aka Black Mask. Roman runs a nightclub where Harley has caused him tremendous trouble. When Roman finds out that the Bertinelli diamond is back in the city, he sends Harley to retrieve it for his protection. In Harley’s search for the diamond, she comes across a few other women looking for their own way out Gotham Police Detective Renee Montoya (Perez), metahuman, and singer in Sionis’ club Black Canary (Smollett-Bell) and vigilante Huntress (Winstead).
Unlike Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is actually an excellent and fun movie. Now I will say this, I was completely caught off guard of the language and the R Rating. I definitely didn’t look up the rating before going to see the movie. I was sitting in my seat, and within the first minute, Harley Quinn drops an F-Bomb, and I was like, isn’t this a kid’s movie. Oh, how wrong was I. Now for the story, it has that Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill, type structure and vibe to it. Well, maybe the structure but not the vibe. Throughout the film, we are introduced to a variety of flashbacks, provided by some of the best commentaries by Harley. We learn about each of the character’s past and how they ended up where they are today. With Harley narrating, it made it far more entertaining.
Where the story does its justice and does a great job is with the way Harley and the woman go about getting their independence from the men who hold them down. Each one wants to gain their right to be strong, and together they realize they can make it happen. Once again, GIRL POWER!! Now there is some backstabbing, but, in the end, they find that they are strong together. This is seen in the final fight scene when all the women take on Ramon’s men. They whip a ton of ass. One thing is that Harley gives Black Cannery a hair tie and somehow finds time to put on rollerblades.
The fighting scenes are actually really great and fun to watch while showing off each character’s strength. Harley Quinn might be a skinny girl, but damn can she wield a bat and shotgun. When she goes to the police station, that was by far one of the best and finniest fight scenes I’ve seen in a while. Now the whole getting amped on cocaine was funny, but she wields that shotgun like it was a playground stick. Harley seems to have the skills of an Olympic gymnast. She was swinging her body around while kicking and punching with such ease.
The cast of the film did their jobs even with the limited screen time that they had. Robbie holds nothing back while truly embodying Harley Quinn. If she stole the movie in Suicide Squad, she ran away and made this film her very own with a massive smile on her face. Robbie brought such a wild and positive energy to her character that you really wanted to root for her, even if she was insane. Now for the other characters, once again, it was a little short and crammed for each one. Smollett-Bell’s Black Canary was good, but she was almost lost in the whole film. I don’t think we learned much about her character and how she got her superpowers. Perez’s Renee brought that old school 90s police attitude. She seemed to be one of the ones that the story somewhat focused on. We learned how she was straight up, backstabbed by her partner after doing all of the hard work. Actually, besides Robbie’s character, the only other character we genuinely get an in-depth background dive in was Winstead as the Huntress. Just like Tarantino’s O-Ren Ishii, we really see how her family tragedy really jacked her up mentally. Winstead brought it with this character showing how truly messed up and in need of therapy she needed. Now the other who really stole the show was McGregor, who shined as Roman. If you wanted someone truly diabolical and insane, McGregor didn’t hold back with this role. He was all over the place in a good way with Roman and a real joy to watch.
Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is not your typical comic book superhero movie. Going the route of The Wolverine or Deadpool, it definitely lets the language of the character fly in a good and enjoyable way. With the R rating, it will probably hold back many people from watching it like Marvel movies. Still, it is refreshing and new for a character that pretty much comes from a dark universe. The Batman universe isn’t rainbows and sunshine, but Harley Quinn definitely brings those things to the movie. Overall, Birds of Prey is a great film that shows what female superhero lead can do while gaining their independence.
